MIDDLESEX TWP — A twist of fate may have saved an elderly couple sleeping and unaware of a fire in their house this morning.

Robert Moan was driving home from work after an 11-hour shift at a food service business in Cranberry Township shortly after 6:30 a.m. when he decided to turn onto Leslie Road.

He normally would have taken a different route.

“There’s construction going on where I usually drive,” the 44-year-old Moan said, “so I decided to go another way.”

While nearing his house on a nearby street up around the corner, he saw smoke coming from a house at 204 Leslie Road.

“I looked over and saw fire,” Morgan said. “I knew something wasn’t right.”

He stopped and rushed to the house. Two cars in the driveway, he thought, meant there were people in the house.

“I banged on the door and two windows next to it,” he said. But he got no answer.

“So I kept banging, really loud.” He guessed for several minutes.

Michael and Kathy Rebel were asleep in a back bedroom of the home where they’ve lived for 26 years.

Eventually, Kathy heard the banging outside.

“I got up and went to the door,” she said. “I heard this fantastic gentleman yelling, ‘You know your house is on fire.’”

But the good Samaritan wasn’t finished. Moan went into the house and helped Michael, who suffers medical issues, get out safely.

He assisted them into his running car and out of the freezing cold. “(Kathy) gave me a big hug,” he said.

By then, Middlesex Township Patrolman Conrad Pfeifer, having gotten the call, was on his way.

“I saw smoke all the way around driving here,” Pfeifer. “When I arrived, I could see flames coming from the roof.”

Concerned that the fire could spread, the officer and Moan each drove one of the homeowners’ cars out of the driveway and out of danger.

Firefighters from several departments arrived and eventually got the blaze knocked down. Investigators believe the fire began in a wood burner that was in the living room fireplace.

Kathy Rebel said she and her husband had used the burner the day before. “We used it last about 2 p.m.,” she said. “It was just a small fire and we thought it was completely out. I don’t know what would have caused this.”

A damage estimate was not immediately available. The Rebels said they plan to stay with family until their house is repaired.

The couple heaped praise and gratitude upon Moan for possibly saving their lives.

“I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t do,” the accidental hero said. “I’m just glad I took a different way home.”